Daily Archives: November 3, 2014

Say It Like It Is!

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SAY IT LIKE IT IS!

“You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. ‘A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.’ I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty.

“Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” Galatians 5:7-12

In a few terse sentences, Paul uses words like a slashing sword.

“Who cut in on you?” First slash: have you considered the credentials of the people who are telling you this nonsense? Who are they and what authority do they have? What relationship do they have with the truth?

The first responsibility these believers had was to check the credibility of the ones who were teaching them and what they were being taught, against the truth. At that stage they had only the Old Testament and the apostles’ teaching; no written record of the life and teachings of Jesus and the interpretation of His yoke from the apostles whom He had authorised to go and teach all nations.

Were these Juadiazers part of the Twelve? No! Were they disciples of the apostles? No! Were they authorised to go in Jesus’ name? No! In whose name were they going? In the name of the same religious leaders and their successors who crucified Jesus and persecuted the believers!  Were they proclaiming the truth? No! What was the truth? Jesus!

These men had no authority from Jesus and they did not preach Jesus. They were imposters.

Second slash: these false teachers were in danger of God’s judgment. A disciple of Jesus had no right to add to, subtract from or change the rabbi’s yoke. What was Jesus’ yoke? Himself. He was the model and the teacher of the truth about God, about Himself, about people and about God’s kingdom, all of which formed His yoke. Whatever was in line with Him was the truth because He declared that He and He alone is the way to the Father, the truth about the Father and the life outside of which everyone and everything is dead. He died and rose again to prove it.

These false teachers met none of these criteria. They were dead!

Third slash: it was the preaching of the cross that was offensive to the Jews and brought the wrath of the Jewish leaders down on the believers’ heads. They rejected the message of a crucified Messiah. He was a blasphemer and an imposter, so they crucified Him and persecuted those who followed Him. If Paul was preaching circumcision as the truth, why did the Jews hate him? Persecution was another of the evidences that he was on the right track because he identified himself with his Master who was hounded to the cross.

The false teachers were part of the persecutors. They were on the wrong side.

Fourth slash: this time Paul really hit below the belt! I wish the knife would slip and mutilate their bodies completely. If they want to draw blood, let it be their own and not that of their victims. Paul’s anger spilled over into words of deep frustration. For what purpose was the shedding of Gentiles’ blood? Jesus has already shed His blood for the sins of the whole world. What more do we need?

Implied in Paul’s outburst was the wish that these men would so disfigure themselves that they would no longer be able to reproduce the pernicious teaching that was sucking in ignorant and innocent victims just to get a following and boost their own egos.

Four mortal blows against the false teachers. Would the Galatians listen and heed Paul’s warning?

What about us? What have we added to the death of Jesus to “help” Him to make us acceptable to God, just in case He is not satisfied with what Jesus did by His life and death?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

The Righteousness Of Faith

Bible Study, ,

THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF FAITH

“For through the Spirit we eagerly wait by faith for the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” Galatians 5:5-6.

“The Christian life,” says Paul, “operates on a completely different principle from the old system of the law.” The law makes us look within and continually evaluate ourselves on our performance. We can never be sure whether we have been obedient enough, attained the standard, and satisfied the demands of the law. We focus on what we have achieved or failed to achieve rather than on the attitudes and motives of our hearts.

We develop an attitude of self-righteous pride, like the Pharisee in the temple whose prayer was nothing more than self-congratulation and contempt for the tax collector whom he despised because he was a sell-out to Rome. Circumcision is the doorway to this way of life. It enhances self-awareness and self-satisfaction which cancels out faith in Jesus and trust in His finished work.

“The Christian life,” said Paul, “is the way of faith in the righteousness of Jesus which He gives to us as a free gift, not trust in ourselves to attain the perfection of God which He requires for us to be acceptable to Him.” It does not matter whether we are circumcised or uncircumcised, Jew or Gentile, a member of the covenant people of God or not. What matters is whether or not we have faith in the death of Jesus to forgive our sin, cleanse us from all unrighteousness and clothe us in His perfect righteousness which He gives freely to those who believe in Him.

Where does circumcision fit in? It doesn’t because new life in Jesus Christ is based on faith, not on performance. Keeping the law does not produce love. It produces pride in myself and contempt for other people who do not do what I do. Even the Law taught God’s people to treat each other with kindness and mercy and not cruelty like the Egyptians treated them when they were in slavery to them.

Everything God has done for us through Jesus is intended to bring our old selfish sin nature into submission to Him and to nurture our new nature which has been recreated in the image of God.

“Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.” Colossians 3:9-11.

Paul also spoke about righteousness as something we hope for. Does that mean that, in the end it is possible that we might not receive this gift which is the only thing that makes us acceptable to God? No, because hope in the Bible has a different meaning from the hope we express in our everyday lives.

When we say that we hope that something will happen, there is an element of uncertainty because we have no foundation upon which to base our hope. “I hope it will not rain today,” we say when we need good weather for an outing to the beach, but we cannot be sure because no one can control the weather. In the Bible, our hope is based on what God has promised. He has already declared that it will happen and we put our confidence and expectation in what He has said. It is a hope until it becomes a reality. Faith in Him is the energy that makes our hope a fact.

“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see,” Hebrews 11:1.

God has promised us the gift of righteousness through Christ’s death for us. We do not have to work for it. It is His gift to us now, but we will only experience the full effects of Jesus’ righteousness when He returns to restore everything to perfection. We live now in the hope of His righteousness, and on that basis we have confidence that everything He has promised will be given to us on that day.

We will always be imperfect as long as we are in this body, but God sees us in Christ as already perfected. We live now in the faith that God accepts us because we are “covered” by the righteousness of Jesus, just as we are “covered” for the repair of our vehicle in the case of an accident, or for the loss of property when something of ours is stolen, if we have an insurance policy.

We can love freely because we are not trying to impress God but living out of the confidence that we are who He says we are, His children who resemble Him because we have His Spirit in us.

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.